Officer’s Wife Sues Sheriff for Bias : Lawsuit: Couple allege that the department’s practice of having spouses at substations work for free is discriminatory.

During her tenure at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s tiny substation in Gorman, Caryn Suhr answered telephones, staffed the front desk, dispatched radio calls and cleaned jail cells--all for free.

That is because of a longstanding department practice that has the wives of deputies who live at the Gorman station perform those duties without pay.

Suhr, who lived at the station off the Golden State Freeway north of Magic Mountain two years ago with her husband, Mark, tried to persuade the department to pay her and another deputy’s wife at least minimum wage. But the department rejected her proposal, saying that the deputies and their wives were adequately compensated by getting to live rent-free in a residential compound at the station that the county rents for $450 a month.

Department officials also noted that deputies stationed at the remote outpost receive a 5.5% bonus annually, which in Mark Suhr’s case amounted to about $2,000 above his regular pay.

The department transferred Mark Suhr in late 1992, and, according to the couple, mounted a retaliatory campaign against him because of his wife’s outspokenness, including an internal investigation that was later dropped for lack of evidence. The Suhrs also allege that someone from the department planted drugs in Mark Suhr’s patrol car and harassed his family with obscene and threatening phone calls.

Determined to win direct compensation for the wives, the couple have filed a lawsuit against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Sherman Block, alleging sex and marital status discrimination and various violations of labor law. In addition to seeking millions of dollars in monetary damages for back wages and emotional distress, the Suhrs want the Sheriff’s Department to pledge that it will pay wages to spouses who live and work at the Gorman substation, and to encourage female deputies to apply for the two Gorman posts.

The department would not comment on the case, but in court papers disputes the Suhrs’ allegations. Capt. Mike Quinn, who is in charge of the Gorman station, said the department does not require the wives of Gorman deputies to work, although he acknowledged that they often perform duties at the station, such as dispatching and answering phones.

“They (the Suhrs) knew ahead of time what they were getting into. It’s not as though the county increased its demands. The only change was in their demands,” said Dennis Gonzales, a principal county counsel supervising the case. “This is a very popular position--people are lining up to do it.”

Two deputies and their wives now live at the station and one has signed a waiver agreeing to volunteer her services to the department for free, department officials said. The women could not be reached for comment Friday.

The Suhrs’ case astounds and outrages women’s groups, who consider the department’s policy archaic and unjust.

“It’s Neanderthal,” said Carol Sobel, senior staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “Even though they get free living space . . . she misses out on Social Security and pension benefits.”

The International Assn. of Women Police, a group not usually known for liberal positions, also sides with the Suhrs.

“Shame on the department,” said Gale Buckner, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the association’s president. “It’s a sad commentary that to get this choice assignment an officer has to bring along as chattel a spouse to do menial labor without compensation.”

A spokesman for the sheriff said Friday that Block declined to comment on the matter because of the pending litigation.

But according to court documents, Block wrote Caryn Suhr a sympathetic letter about 2 1/2 years ago in response to her pay request.

“Though funding and finances are always a problem, I have directed our Personnel Services staff to expedite a classification study of the work you consistently perform,” Block said in the letter dated Nov. 8, 1991. “It is my hope that we can identify an appropriate job classification and then obtain the requisite funding.”

According to the Suhrs, the department’s study showed that the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department pays the wives of deputies who live at a remote substation, even though the families live there rent-free. The wives are classified as communications operators and are paid for 30 hours a month at a starting salary of $9.30 an hour, Chief Ken Kipp said Thursday.

“Despite people’s perception of the clear blue sky and all of these rural places, living there is a major inconvenience,” Kipp said. “It uproots you from your local school or church, and the couples work hard.”

But after reviewing the study, Los Angeles County officials rejected Caryn Suhr’s request. Her husband was later transferred to the Santa Clarita station.

Caryn Suhr, 39, said Thursday that she expressed a desire to be paid in 1990, when Sheriff’s Department officials interviewed her and her husband for the job. Caryn Suhr, who quit a $12-an-hour job as a grocery clerk to move up to Gorman, said she was told the department was looking into paying the wives sometime in the future.

When she was interviewed by sheriff’s officials, she said, she and the other wives were asked whether they would be willing to search female inmates and if they knew how to operate guns. “At times I felt as if I was an officer myself,” she said.

In an example of what spouses at the remote station might be expected to face, the wives were told that in 1978 a deputy assigned to the Gorman station was killed by a North Hollywood man, who was then disarmed by the deputy’s wife. But for the most part, their duties involved answering phones, dispatching radio calls and occasionally administering first aid to travelers through the mountain town 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

“If it weren’t for the wives on the radio, we could be killed and no one would even know for days,” Mark Suhr said.

Caryn Suhr said that pursuing the wage issue was difficult because she was torn between helping her husband’s career and “doing the right thing.”

“It was the worst dilemma of my life,” she said, adding that she was hospitalized for stress and depression shortly before her husband was ordered to leave Gorman. “But I saw it was wrong immediately, and I’m not a person who sits in a corner and lets things go by.”